In this week’s episode, Ian and Amanda interview Cleyde to get the in-depth story of her experience as a recovering academic.

Cleyde’s Advice: Have a Plan

Photo by: Steven Johnson

Cleyde talks about her reasons for leaving academia, including her relationship with academia. She also talks about what her goals are for her career. We also briefly discuss if it’s possible to control your productivity—that is to avoid having 100 publications in one year and only one the next. Cleyde also brings up a very important point about how your job needs to fit your personality and how your work environment can affect you.

Her best advice? Have a plan before leaving if you can. If you know that you want to leave academia (or are even just considering the possibility), start planning as soon as you can. This allows you to find out all the options (there are a lot!) for PhDs and former academics.

Mentioned in This Episode

The Year Of Albert Einstein: His discoveries in 1905 would forever change our understanding of the universe. Amid the centennial hoopla, the trick is to separate the man from the math

Zadra, Dan. 5: Where Will You Be Five Years from Today?  2009. Compendium, Inc. 

Diversity Journal Club. The premise of this journal club is to discuss articles and blog posts about Diversity in academia. We choose the paper on Mondays and the discussion happens on Mondays at 2pm EST, every other week, under #DiversityJC. 

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This season we will interview other recovering academics, so it’s only fair that we turn the mic on ourselves first. In this episode, Amanda is interviewed by Ian and Cleyde.

Revelations in Amanda’s Career…

She talks about the realization that money can be exchanged for goods and services, making the leap into self-employment,  and the difficulty in overcoming her introverted ways. She talks a lot about how most people are happy to help you or at least talk to you about their work.

Mentioned in this episode

Scientific Dispatches Consulting LLC

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We’re back! This season, we will interview academics and recovering academics. We’re starting this season off with interviewing the hosts of Hello PhD, Joshua Hall and Daniel Arneman.

Hello PhD  and the Recovering Academic share a common desire to talk about what no one talks about during your science training. We both hope that by talking about these issues out loud that people who feel isolated realize that they’re not alone.

When in Rome…

To make our guests feel at home, we brought the Hello PhD tradition of reviewing a beer on air to our podcast. We had to find a beer that was available in four different cities in three different states. The Ballast Point Brewing Company Unfiltered Sculpin’ Extra Hopped IPA (limited edition!) was up to that challenge. It’s definitely hoppy, but delicious.

It also had a sextant on the label, which was appropriate for our conversation.

How do you know when to break up with academia?

We invited Josh and Dan to talk on our podcast after Cleyde heard Episode 75: When Research Sucks. She asked (made) Amanda and Ian listen to the same episode. We all started thinking about how do you know when your research just sucks right now or if it’s a sign that you should leave academia?

How do you deal with the emotional aspects of leaving academia? Dara Wilson-Grant answers in Episode 27 of Hello PhD.

Academia can still be the right match for you. One way to tell? If you still have the enthusiasm. To hear what that sounds like, the Tap Root podcast has a great example with Siobhan Braybrook.

Sometimes your career path isn’t a straight forward exercise. Sometimes it’s more wayfinding than map-orienting.

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We’re coming back for Season 2 on August 22nd! Curious about what this means for our podcast? Listen to our Season 2 trailer and find out!

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Courtesy of @BWJones

In this episode, we discuss the importance of taking breaks. Breaks come in many forms and in different durations—from just an hour to a weekend to a full week (or more!). Preventing burnout and recharging yourself are vital no matter where you are in academia—committed to staying in academia, transitioning out of academia, to fully transitioned.

This episode marks the end of Season One of the Recovering Academic Podcast. We are going to take our own advice and take a break. We’re looking forward to talking with you all when we return!

Discussed in this episode:

NFL Coaching Culture Boosts Heart Risk

TED Radio Hour: Simply Happy

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In this episode, we discuss if we regret doing a PhD and what advice we would give our younger selves. Many times we focus in on the microlevel—what results will this experiment bring, what publications will we get—and forget to look at the macrolevel—what do we want to do, where do our interests lie. Getting a PhD can sometimes encourage us to think only about the details and not about the big picture. We also discuss the importance of trying new things—even if they aren’t fully planned.

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and starting on the first one.”
― Mark Twain

Also discussed in this episode:

No Tomorrow—a TV series

Melancholia—a Film

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In this episode, we discuss the elephant in the room: Are you still a scientist after you leave academia? After spending a decade or more identifying as a scientist, deciding to leave may academia may be mean more than abandoning a culture—it may mean losing your identity. Many factors come into play with deciding who is (and who isn’t) a scientist. Join us as we explore what it means to be a scientist.

Mentioned in this episode:

Lenny Teytelman’s post: If you’re no longer doing science, are you still a scientist?

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Note: This episode originally had a file error when uploaded. We’ve corrected it. You can re-download the corrected version now. Thanks for supporting the Recovering Academic Podcast!

In this episode, we discuss how to tell your story of leaving academia. The age-old advice of staying positive about why you left your previous position can be difficult—especially because academia is held up as this ideal position. We talk a bit about how we handled or are handling telling this story through our cover letters and CVs. Telling this story isn’t only about spinning it as positive—in many cases it is positive.

Don’t feel like you’re not doing enough.  Sometimes doing more is not necessarily better. -@Doctor_PMS

Mentioned in this episode:

Quantum tunnelling

The Secret

Ask a manager

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Courtesy of @BWJones

Getting over the fear of failure. As academics, we are inherently perfectionists. There’s nothing like applying for jobs to bring out those tendencies. In this episode, we discuss our fear of failure, what causes it, and how we got over our fear.

And Ian makes us laugh hysterically over an extended metaphor.

Even if it’s n=1… you still have to do the experiments with your life. –@IHStreet

Mentioned in this episode:

Dunning-Kruger Effect

Dealing with Impostor Syndrome

The Expanse (TV Show)

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